Anthias

Jewellery atelier in Milan opened in 1991 as the result of a partnership between Monica Castiglioni and Natsu Toyofuku. It quickly became known as a creative space in which the design of jewellery was free of the trends of fashion and dictates of the market. Jewels were conceived as small sculptures that one might wear. Each coming from an artistic family, the two lady goldsmiths, after completing their apprenticeship at the Primateria laboratory in Milan owned by Davide De Paoli, dedicate themselves to metalworking, in particular to silver but also to “poor” metals such as bronze and iron. Their personal search for new molded forms ennobles these “inferior” materials and gradually brings the two designers — one with a style that is informal and material-based, the other poetically abstract — toward a stylistic homogeneity that becomes ever more marked. In 2001 they began a collaboration with Mikimoto Japan, a leader in the field of cultured pearls. Their predilection for unusual stones, such as milky aquamarine and red quartz, is today accompanied by a curiosity for traditional materials such as wood and glass, employed in the manufacturing of both decorations and small sculpture. Anthias jewellery is on sale at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and often shown at international exhibitions.